Stories from a 12,000 Mile Journey Through a New America

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Invite Sarah van Gelder to speak at your event, or to appear as a guest on your radio or television program. Or bring “The Revolution Where You Live” to your book club or local organizations.

Topics

The Revolution Where You Live— How local communities are transforming the world, and how you can be part of it. Focus on climate justice, economic justice, and racial justice.

Stories and Slides from My Road Trip — The people Sarah met, from Native American reservations to the streets of Detroit, from the coal fields of Kentucky to Montana ranches—the people who are making change where they are.

What it means to tell powerful stories in a time of crisis — These are not ordinary times, and the stories we need in these times are also not ordinary. Examples of powerful reframing and the emerging new stories of our time.

How can you create the Revolution Where You Live?

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ENDORSEMENTS

“Jump into Sarah van Gelder’s camper, and you’ll see our country anew . . . just the book Americans need right now.”

Frances Moore Lappé, author of Diet for a Small Planet

“The Revolution Where You Live couldn’t have come at a better time. If Woody Guthrie had penned a book to go along with ‘This Land Is Your Land,’ it might have read like this.”

David Bornstein, New York Times columnist

“I love that this book documents the incredibly powerful and dynamic movements that are taking root around the country. Read it!”

Mark Ruffalo, actor, director, and film producer

“Looking for hope? Here’s where to find it. An inspiring account of the grassroots leaders throughout the United States who are confronting racism, the climate crisis, and poverty.”

Van Jones, CNN cohost, author, and activist

“What the world needs today is a modern Odysseus—one who speaks with the power and love of the feminine, listens from the heart, and acts from compassion. Sarah van Gelder is that hero, a woman who understands that the monsters blocking our paths are our own creations, that the way out of chaos is through soul-felt, community-centered involvement. The Revolution Where You Live is a song of modern redemption.”

John Perkins, author of New Confessions of an Economic Hit Man

“What a journey! Sarah van Gelder uncovers the real revolution unfolding across America: leaderless and leader-full, up against it and angry, but still willing to hope. A passionate, powerful account!”

Bill McKibben, author and cofounder of 350.org

“Journalist Sarah van Gelder says we can build the political revolution Bernie Sanders talks about from the bottom up, away from the iron grip of Wall Street and wealthy corporate interests. That’s a future we can all believe in.”

“Slow food is a local, healthy homemade meal, prepared with a lot of love. Sister Sarah has a similar talent as she shares with us her snail ride across Turtle Island—not as a fable but as independent media evidence that decolonization and the Great Turning are here. We the people love this place!”

Pancho Ramos-Stierle, full-time ServiceSpace volunteer, Oakland

“This book will keep you warm even as it keeps you riveted, and it will inspire you to see your part in the solutions that our world so desperately needs.”

Brendan Martin, founder and Director, The Working World

“Buckminster Fuller reminded us that we are facing a civilizational choice between utopia and oblivion. In this intrepid account, Sarah van Gelder renders the realistic utopia possible and reminds us that it is being born, right now, in the heart of the old empire.”

Alnoor Ladha, Executive Director, The Rules

“Like the inspiring efforts that she chronicles, Sarah van Gelder’s writing is ‘ordinary and extraordinary.’ In sharp contrast to mass media blather and clichés of condescension, this book offers hope grounded in real human experience.”

Norman Solomon, Executive Director, Institute for Public Accuracy, and author of War Made Easy

“People are hungry for solutions, and those that unfold in these beautifully told stories offer hope and ways to build bridges of justice and understanding.”

LeeAnn Hall, Co–Executive Director, People’s Action

“This is a wonderful book—warm, human, direct, meaningful—and it is one that will help you understand why building a new America from the ground up must begin with community.”

Gar Alperovitz, author of What Then Must We Do?

“In this good book, Sarah van Gelder documents her reprise of Alexis de Tocqueville’s 1831 travels in search of democracy. It is a book of answers: homegrown, walking-distance, smart, and heartfelt.”

Peter Block, author of Community

“Our survival depends today on rediscovering hope as a social force. This is what Sarah van Gelder does in this amazing book, where she shares sources of hope that she collected with love and wisdom.”

Gustavo Esteva, founder of Universidad de la Tierra

“Bravo! Through masterful storytelling, Sarah van Gelder shares a critical insight—that when we connect to the place where we live and work in community, we have the power to overcome the complex challenges of our time.”

Judy Wicks, author of Good Morning, Beautiful Business

“Sarah van Gelder’s genius, in the spirit of Wendell Berry, is to celebrate the women, men, and children who cultivate love for their places in all their diversity. This book inspires us to regenerate our connections with each other and to the ecology of our place on earth.”

Madhu S. Prakash, author and Professor of Education, Penn State College of Education

“Sarah van Gelder has written a beautiful chronicle of people making revolution the old-fashioned way: close to home. Learn from these stories and claim your place in the America that is arriving.”

Eric Liu, founder of Citizen University and author of You’re More Powerful Than You Think

“In The Revolution Where You Live, Sarah van Gelder offers living hope, grounded not in theory but in the stories of the real communities of resilience and resistance she visits.”

Tim DeChristopher, climate activist

“Sarah van Gelder’s The Revolution Where You Live is filled with stories of people she interviewed as she traveled the country listening to their cries and dreams. Readers of these engrossing stories can go along for this memorable ride of reflection and empathy!”

Jim Diers, author of Neighbor Power and former Director, Seattle Department of Neighborhoods

“I’ve learned to trust Sarah van Gelder, the questions she asks, and the folks she listens to. In The Revolution Where You Live, her encounters with people reinventing their lives today reveal promises we can believe in.”

Joanna Macy, activist and author of Coming Back to Life

“Sarah listened to everyday people and tells us their beautiful stories as they take control over their own destinies.”

Linda Stout, founder of Spirit in Action and author of Bridging the Class Divide

“These untold stories are good medicine—stoking the imagination, warming the heart, and helping us glimpse the broad outlines of a bright new future.”

Fania Davis, writer, public speaker, and founder of Restorative Justice for Oakland Youth